ST9302-CS 930610To:
From:
RE:
Date:
CONFIDENTIAL MEMORANDUM
Gary Sieb, Director of Planning
Steve Goram, Public Works Director
Jim Ragsdill, Purchasing Agent
Mike Martin, E.I.T.
Kenneth M. Griffin P.E., City Engineer
Sandy Lake Road Project ST 93-02
June 10, 1993
I have reviewed the third Scope of Services submitted by Rady and Associates on Sandy Lake
Road. Needless to say, I was somewhat disappointed by their approach to cut cost on the
project. Basically, it appeared to me that their approach was to take out required and necessary
services from the base bid and include them as add-ons at some point in the project. Robert and
I had talked about some of these in the fact that the contractor could do traffic control and
possibly erosion control. However, I was quite disappointed to see some other items removed
from the basic service. These items include things such as printing the plans for over $11,000;
performing basic record drawings after construction for almost $5,000; performing the survey
for the required fight-of-way for almost $20,000.
Their comment on the required fight-of-way on page 17 states, "because of the uncertainty of
the need for additional fight-of-way and/or easements". If they are uncertain at this time if we
are going to need additional right-of-way, then quite possibly they don't understand the scope
of this project. Obviously, we need additional fight-of-way to complete this project. This
appears to be an attempt to conceal the real design cost.
I am also concerned that in their data analysis they shifted the responsibility for the analysis
from themselves to the City. We do not have the staff nor the time to do data analysis or data
collection for a project of this magnitude. That responsibility should be the responsibility of the
firm we select to do the design for the City. They have also greatly reduced the presentations.
I believe they have gone from twelve to six. This concerns me as we have told them on the
front end that there will probably be a need for many presentations. If we do need more than
the six, they are now proposing then each one of those would be an additional cost. Again, this
conceals the real cost of the design of this project.
They have also removed some other items concerning landscaping most noticeably the gateway
identification design and the master plan for the centralized irrigation control system.
They have also removed the design of the traffic signals from the basic project. It is my opinion
that the design of the traffic signals is a central and crucial part of the design of this project.
On page 10 they talk about possibly including the drainage improvements on the paving sheets
and they state that it will be at the discretion of the engineer. This is unacceptable. The decision
will be made at this point and time and we will not be in a position to give up control of any
decisions on this project to the engineer. All decisions of the design of this project will be made
by the City. Also, on page 12 concerning coordination of utilities, they shift the responsibility
from themselves to the City for distribution of all plans, obtaining information from utility
companies and coordination with utility companies for proposed improvements and relocations.
As previously stated, they have removed the printing of all plans from the basic service. This
is totally unacceptable. On page 15, they are suggesting that the hydrologic and hydraulic
analysis is an additional service. To me this doesn't make sense. It would be impossible to
design the appropriate channel section at the southwest corner of MacArthur and Sandy Lake
without doing the hydrologic analysis of the channel. The deletion of this from the basic scope
doesn't make sense. There is also some other confusion about what is taken out of the basic
service and what is included as you read through their scope of services. Some of it still reads
that it is in the basic scope and yet it shows to be excluded in the pricing.
At this point and time, I am unsure as to where the City should go with this contract for Sandy
Lake Road. I am not sure that we are going to get a design contract with Rady and Associate
within the acceptable funds. It appears as through they are not negotiating fairly with the City
and that their attempt to get numbers down is only accomplished by deleting essential elements
from the design of this project. I think the committee should reconvene and talk about the
direction to take on Sandy Lake Road. It is quite possible that we may need to be considering
the #2 firm at this point and time. I would be happy to schedule a meeting and discuss my
concerns in greater detail.
file/kgriffia/sandylMpanel.lmm